In Search of the Means To a Better Life: Caribbean Migration to the United States.

Gordon, Monica H.

New England Journal of Black Studies, n2 p28-42 1981-1982

Caribbean migration to the United States has largely resulted from capital investment in the region. Such investment attracted labor to areas targeted for high economic development, and when employment opportunities in those areas dwindled, the migrants headed toward the United States, where industries welcomed these sources of cheap labor. While early United States immigration policy favored the entrance of Europeans over other immigrants, changes in policy after 1965 brought in greater numbers of migrants from Third World countries. Caribbean migration to the United States remains economically motivated for the most part. However, recent immigration for political reasons has made it difficult to distinguish between economic and political refugees, and has complicated the American immigration policy making process. Recent Caribbean immigrants include many women and professional and skilled workers who aspire for upward mobility. It is not clear whether Caribbean countries have lost or gained from their citizens' emigration; what is clear is that the United States has benefited from the influx of both trained and unskilled workers. Among immigrants themselves, entrance into American society may allow some to achieve economic mobility, but may push others into the ranks of the urban underclass. (MJL)